Culture & Entertainment

Flappy Bird flies away

Culture & Entertainment

Flappy Bird flies away

Guest post by Jamie Anderson Last week I finally gave in and downloaded Flappy Bird. Apparently, I was one of the last people who could because, as of yesterday, Flappy Bird was
removed from the App Store, despite being at the top of the free downloads for both iTunes and Google Play in Canada. Vietnam’s Dong Nguyen, independent game developer and the creator of Flappy Bird, released the app last May. No one is entirely sure what led to the decision to take the game down this week. Rumour has it Dong received a warning letter from Nintendo, but a tweet he wrote suggested otherwise: “It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore.” Dong was allegedly earning $50,000 per day from advertising revenue that the game brought in. The creator tweeted to his fans, “I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore.” Some Canadians are absolutely devastated and others are relieved that it’s gone. It only took one prior experience with the tiny pixelated, pipe-dodging fowl to get me (and a lot of other Canadians), hooked. But why? The game only requires that you tap the screen—the more you tap, the more the bird flaps and higher it flies. The challenge is to get the bird through narrow gaps in vertical pipes that constantly move across the screen. If the bird touches the pipe—crash, it’s dead. The goal is to win all four medals awarded for high scores. It’s ridiculously simple. I still play it on the bus every morning and I’m sure everyone looking over my shoulder is wondering why I can’t get past the second level. Maybe that’s the overall allure—a simple game that is incredibly difficult to master. After a week the highest level I’ve achieved is 13. (Totally proud!) Unfortunately, that was on a work buddy’s phone. My personal phone app remains at a miniscule level 9, despite my best efforts. Whether you loved it or hated it or never even got a chance to play it, Flappy Bird, you will be missed.